The Great Teachers: Lessons Learned and Shared in Losing
Hi, everyone!
This is an intuitive post....based on free association, good will and appreciation for the great Teachers of the game. Looking at the standings for the 1959 USSR Championship, which Petrosian won without losing a game,
1959 USSR Championship
I looked at the games of Nezhmetdinov, and at his 3 wins. One of them was against Bronstein. And I remembered that Bronstein published this game in "200 Open Games" (1973). Some authors do not want to publish their losses, but I have found that the great Teachers do not mind, if it serves the greater purpose of sharing knowledge, the lesson learned from the loss, with the reader.
Rashid Gibiatovich Nezhmetdinov was a genius. At one point, he was Champion of Russia in chess AND checkers- simultaneously!
Rashid G. Nezhmetdinov
(1912-1974)
And this is a fundamental position, based on good will; a desire to share, illumine and decipher for the reader some of the secrets of the game, even at the price of not looking so brilliant. After all, when you lose a game you are the one who made the last mistake, right?
From memory, some of the players who are not afraid to publish, share and comment pedagogically on their losses are: Tartakower, Bronstein, Gufeld, Polugaevsky and Tal. There might be others; these are the ones I remember. So, let us look at some examples.
We have already seen one example by Bronstein; there are some more in his book, "The Sorcerer's Apprentice".
Next up is Tartakower. Where do I start with this great man?
Savielly Tartakower (1887-1956)
Let me start at the end. During WWII, he joined the French Resistance against the Nazis, and was parachuted behind enemy lines. Now, THAT should tell us something about his character!
One of the best books I own is his classic, "500 Master Games of Chess".
I highly recommend it; however, it is written in descriptive notation (for me that is no problem. I grew up with descriptive. Algebraic notation came later). This book is a masterpiece. Two volumes are published as one. One volume is open games; the other volume is semi-open and closed games. Within each volume, games are organized by opening AND chronologically. You can look at, let us say, a French Defense played in 1834, and further on, one played in 1935.....more than one hundred years of chess history. He annotates every game, and the annotations are world-class. This book will improve your chess no matter what page you open it to!
In this book, Tartakower gives at least 6 games that he lost, with full annotations, just because of their pedagogical value!
Some of the games he lost are against world-class opposition: A loss with White against Reshevsky in Stockholm, 1937 (Centre Game), a loss with White against Capablanca in New York, 1924 (King's Gambit), a loss with Black against Alekhine in Kecskemet, 1927 (Caro-Kann Defense), a loss with Black against Milner-Barry, London 1932 (Caro-Kann Defense), a loss with Black against Alekhine, London 1932 (Budapest Defense), and a loss with White against Lasker in St. Petersburg, 1909 (English Opening).
Of all these losses, the one against Milner-Barry surprises me the most. Losing against Capablanca, Alekhine, Reshevsky or Lasker is no shame, but Milner-Barry? Who is he?
Simaginfan will probably know everything about him, but for me, an uncultured chess player from a Caribbean island (Puerto Rico), he is a total stranger. So, let us see who Milner-Barrry is:
Stuart Milner-Barry
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Philip Stuart Milner-Barry
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| Born | 20 September 1906 Hendon, London
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| Died | 25 March 1995 (aged 88) Lewisham, London
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| Occupation | Codebreaker, civil servant, chess player |
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Sir Philip Stuart Milner-Barry KCVO CB OBE (20 September 1906 – 25 March 1995) was a British chess player, chess writer, World War II codebreaker and civil servant. He represented England in chess both before and after World War II. He worked at Bletchley Park during World War II, and was head of "Hut 6", a section responsible for deciphering messages which had been encrypted using the German Enigma machine. He was one of four leading codebreakers at Bletchley to petition the then-Prime Minister Winston Churchill directly for more resources for their work. After the war he worked in the Treasury, and later administered the British honours system. In chess, he represented England in international tournaments, and lent his name to four opening variations.
Bletchley Park[edit]
Upon their return, all three soon joined the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park. Milner-Barry was recruited by mathematician Gordon Welchman, who had been his contemporary at Trinity College;[1] in turn Milner-Barry recruited Hugh Alexander.[7] Arriving in early 1940, he joined Welchman's "Hut 6" section, whose task was to solve the Enigma cipher machine as used by the German Army and Air Force.[1]
In 1993, Milner-Barry wrote that "to this day I could not claim that I fully understood how the machine worked, let alone what was involved in the problems of breaking and reading the Enigma cipher".[8] Nonetheless, with his knowledge of the German language, he made a study of the decrypts and found that they contained stereotyped patterns and forms of address that could be exploited as "cribs" – reliable guesses for the plain language message that matched a given piece of encrypted text.[9] Finding reliable cribs was a critical task for Hut 6, as Enigma was broken primarily with the aid of "bombes", large electromechanical machines which automatically searched for parts of the correct settings. Bombes were reliant on a suitable crib in order to succeed. In autumn 1940, Milner-Barry was put in charge of the "Crib Room".[10]
He was billeted with Alexander, who was working in Hut 8, the counterpart to Hut 6 working on German Naval Enigma. Their close friendship let them easily resolve the competing needs of their sections for the limited available bombe time.[11] By October 1941, he was deputy head of Hut 6 under Welchman.[12] At this time, Bletchley Park was experiencing a shortage of clerical staff which was delaying the work on Enigma, and the management of GCCS appeared unable to obtain the resources needed. This affected both Hut 6 and Hut 8, which was run by mathematician Alan Turing with Hugh Alexander as his deputy. Together, Welchman, Milner-Barry, Turing and Alexander bypassed the chain of command and wrote a memorandum directly to the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, outlining their difficulties.[12] It fell to Milner-Barry to deliver the message to 10 Downing Street in person, on 21 October 1941. The next day, Churchill responded, "Action this day: Make sure they have all they want on extreme priority and report to me that this has been done."[13] Within a month their needs were being met.[12]
In autumn 1943, Milner-Barry took over as head of Hut 6, which by that time had grown to over 450 staff, Welchman having been appointed the Assistant Director of Mechanisation at Bletchley Park.[1][14] He remained in charge until the end of the war, presiding over a number of technical challenges presented by the introduction of extra security devices to the German Enigma, including the Enigma Uhr and a rewireable "reflector" rotor.[1] His entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography notes that, "although he increasingly felt that Hut 6 was on the verge of losing the ability to decode Enigma, it held on until the end of the war, and this was due in no small part to his gifted leadership."[1] The official history of Hut 6, written immediately after the end of World War II, comments on his early "most vital technical achievement" in finding cribs, and on his "administrative and diplomatic talents" in his later role as head of the section.[15]
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WOW! Quite a guy!
Now let us look at his victory over Tartakower (comments by Alekhine)
The next example from a great Teacher is Mikhail Tal, a true genius who,
fortunately for us, decided to play chess.
Mikhail Tal, 1962
Mikhail Tal was a gentle soul; he had no enemies! Botvinnik, like Korchnoi,
felt that he had to hate his opponents in order to play well against them. Tal was so kind,
Botvinnik could not hate him, and said (paraphrase):
"Isn' t it wonderful, to be loved by everyone?"
Tal-Botvinnik, 1961 WC Match
Among the books I own, one stands out:
"The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal". It is a real treasure.
Not only is it full of funny and interesting stories and anecdotes,
but also its chess content is so rich! Tal has the other-world talent of
explaining the most "complex" things in a simple way, so simple
even players like me can understand, appreciate and even enjoy it.
For me, this is my greatest joy in chess; the contemplative aspect of the game.
Positions that have a teaching which is technical in nature, they help you to improve
your own decision-making. It is like a grandfather telling you lovingly:
"My son, if you have this situation in life, do this, and not that."
This is chess wisdom.
The other aspect is the beauty of Tal's concepts.
By the way, we as common chess players are fed simplistic explanations about
the great players, and these simplistic views are inherently shallow and false.
"Morphy was a tactician. Tal was a tactician."
Both Morphy and Tal were great positional players, who happened to have also
great imagination. Tal was an excellent endgame player as well, even from his youth;
but that is the subject for another post. He was also a player of great humor and warmth.
He was always available to the chess fans, and treated them with respect and dignity.
Tal gives Fischer a flower- Havana, 1966
This photo and caption from Douglas Griffin's Twitter
"A photo from the 14th Olympiad at Leipzig (DDR). On the left is Alexander Koblencs ('Maestro'). Next to him is Mikhail Tal, then William Lombardy. On the right - Bobby Fischer. Seated - Nadezhda Andreevna, wife of Vasily Smyslov? (Photo source: gpntb.ru.) #chess"
The story behind this photo is that Fischer "read" Tal's hand
and predicted that the next World champion would be......Bobby Fischer!
Now, to one example from Tal's book-
The next Teacher is dear to my heart, because of his openness and humanism;
it is the warmth of his heart that radiates and permeates his writings.
He was a great player, coach and chess journalist.
His name is GM Eduard Gufeld
GM Eduard Gufeld (1936-2002)
His book, "My Life in Chess", is also a masterpiece.
Whenever a GM like Gufeld, Tal or Bronstein shares his joys and sorrows, funny stories,
and his high-level chess, I am caught. Caught by the good will, wisdom and wit
that emanates from these great Teachers. They teach not only chess; they teach humanity.
Gufeld analyzing with Chiburdanidze, Gipslis, Gaprindashvilli and Kasparov.
Here is a great story, and a game lost, by GM Eduard Gufeld
HE WAS CALLED A PEACE-LOVING MAN
(In memory of my good friend, Tigran Petrosian)
Who among us did not collect something in his childhood.....Some collect stamps, others- coins, badges, toy locomotives, etc.
I also have a very original collection of my victories over grandmasters, and I am keen on on its permanent replenishment. To my regret there are some lamentable gaps in this collection. Thus, the score of clashes with Petrosian has been a sheer disaster for the author of these lines: six losses and three draws.
One does not frequently meet top-level grandmasters over the board, and you have to value highly each such encounter.
In 1969 at the USSR Championship I started successfully, and in the next round I had to play White against Petrosian. Here's the opportunity, I thought, to end my unlucky run and defeat him for the first time.
In life I was good friends with Tigran Vartanovich.
Petrosian was very fond of ice hockey. On the very day of our meeting his favorite team- the Moscow "Spartak"- was playing, and on the evening before he blurted out that he would like to attend this match, and the hockey-players wanted it too because they would be playing much better in the presence of the World Champion. I will just add that the hockey match was to begin at 5p.m., but our chess game at 4:30 p.m. I saw in this an indirect hint to a draw.....
I could not sleep the whole night, thinking in a state halfway between wakefulness and sleep: should I accompany Tigran Vartanovich to the hockey match, or should I try to defeat him over the board?
The crucial day arrived. After dinner I decided to heed the voice of reason, which told me I was not destined to defeat the "iron" Tigran. I dialed his number and said: "Tigran Vartanovich! Could you possibly help me to get a ticket to today's hockey match of "Spartak"? After some pause at the other end of the line I heard a voice with Southern accent: "I'd love to buy such a ticket for myself, but how to do it?" As you probably guessed, I dialed the wrong number, the man I spoke to was not Petrosian (I had been let down again by my "calligraphic" handwriting).
So, fate decreed that we should fight....
We greeted each other and sat down at the table. My friend-rival looked alert and determined. Thinking that I had decided to get my revenge for at least one of the previous defeats, he apparently had prepared himself for an all-out struggle. If Petrosian had only known about my peaceful phone call! The game began.....
The next Teacher in this story is GM Lev Polugaevsky.
GM Lev Polugaevsky (1934-1995)
Career
"Lev Polugaevsky was born in Mogilev, in the Soviet Union (now Mahilyow, Belarus), and, after being evacuated during the Second World War, grew up in Kuybyshev (modern Samara). He began playing chess around the age of 10. In 1948, he attracted the attention of Candidate Master Alexy Ivashin, who became his first teacher. International Master Lev Aronin, who lived in Moscow but had family in Kuybyshev, eventually became the teacher whom Polugaevsky credited most for his development. Additionally, between 1950 and 1953 he trained with Rashid Nezhmetdinov.[1] Unlike many of his grandmaster colleagues, his development in chess came slowly, and he did not receive the Soviet master title until he was an adult. His progress then accelerated rapidly, however, and by the late 1960s he was one of the world's strongest players, as was recognized by his participation in the famous "USSR vs. Rest of the World" match of 1970. In this match he occupied fourth board, losing one game to Vlastimil Hort and drawing his other three. Until 1973, Polugaevsky did not pursue chess as a career, working as an engineer and taking time off for tournaments.[2]
Polugaevsky won at Mar del Plata in 1962 and 1971. He won or tied in the USSR Chess Championship three times. He played regularly in qualifying events to select a challenger for the world championship, qualifying for the Candidates Tournament on four occasions. His greatest advancement toward the title came during the 1977 and 1980 cycles, when he defeated Henrique Mecking and former world champion Mikhail Tal, respectively, in quarterfinal Candidates matches, before succumbing both times in the semifinals to the eventual challenger, Viktor Korchnoi.[3]
Polugaevsky played on the Soviet national team in seven Chess Olympiads, in 1966, 1968, 1970, 1978, 1980, 1982 and 1984. His team won the gold medal on each occasion, except in 1978, when the USSR finished second to Hungary."- from Wikipedia
This book is a jewel. Polugaevsky shares the development of his "Polugaevsky Variation" in the Sicilian Defense. He also gives some of his losses, and shares the lessons he learned in them. Here is one of them, from when he was just 14 years old. Enjoy!
OK, chess lovers, that's all I have for now. Took a while to get this one down.
Just one general thought. You want to get better? Analyze your losses!
They are your lessons. Do not worry about your "rating".
If you play better, your rating goes up automatically.
Best wishes of health, peace and happiness to all.
